Dry, but Mild.

I guess I was too busy to post in June and my May post I was talking about the heat. Well, things have changed. Surprise. Surprise. The last 3 weeks have been relatively cool to mild. We even had a week in the low 80s and even 70s! However, we haven't had rain in about 3 weeks, until today (1/10th this morn). There have been several scatter storms pass through the area over this period, but most have split north and south of us. We had a sprinkle this morning, but we really need more. Finger's crossed we will get more rain today and tonight.

In the Veg Garden
The mater plants are beautiful- big, green, lush and loaded with fruits, alas none are ripe yet. I realized I didn't plant any cherry tomatoes, because I would be eating those by now if I had. I did let some of my favorite white currant tomatoes volunteer, but those are traditionally later anyway. The zucchini plants are huge and have made many fruits, but most have shriveled. I wonder if this is due to poor pollination because I have the plants covered. I need to look that up. The plants have busted out of the cover and I've found Stink Bug eggs on them. Those leaves I removed. I also planted 3 more plants assuming the current ones are gonna get hit soon. I have 1 watermelon seedling, that appears to be doing nothing above ground. The pepper plants are looking good, but not really fruiting yet. The eggplants are already being burdened by fruit. I need to pick those so the plants can grow. The corn looks great. Sweets are doing well. Beans are not producing yet. I harvested a decent crop of early potatoes and planted late zinnias, melon and squash in their place. Now for pics.

White Cucumbers. Zucchini under cover. Row 2.

 Harvesting and enjoying many white cukes. A few per day.

Here with hummus.

 A few volunteer sunflowers. Row 3

 Brandywines. Patiently waiting.

 Row 3. Tomato row. 

First garlic: from late June

 A forgotten heirloom pepper- from Heimos Greenhouse

Row 5 front. 

Potatoes grown from Shop-N-Save potatoes!

Popcorn, Yellow Wax and Burgundy beans. Row 4

Late June photo.

Sweets. Row 5. Late June.

Flower Gardens and Critters

The 2016 Garden. Most of the perennials are

still behind where I'd like them to be, but better than last year.

 Bombus impatiens on Mountain Mint

 Cabbage Butterfly on Hoary Vervain

 Bea and Urey at the pond. We have tadpolls after only

21 days built!

 Charlie's afternoon sleeping spot

 This lovely new Cosmos selection. 

Buttery yellows.

 Swamp Milkweed with Milkweed Bugs

 Jailbird Ruby

 Shrubby St Johns Wort

 Thread-waisted Wasp on Mountain Mint

Found this sleeping Carpenter Bee early one morn.

I've been fortunate to get to garden a lot this summer due to not working. I'm both excited and sad that it is already July. I'm midway to back-to-work time. : ( I'll try to soak up as much of my free time as possible. 

Happy July Gardening to you.

"Prepper"

I know it shouldn't bother me, but because I put up food for other seasons I come across A LOT of "prepper" blogs, videos and websites. I'm not that kind of prepper. Clearly we have something in common, though. I like to think of my interest as food independence, but not because of fear of war, global disaster or governmental conspiracy ideas. I just like good food and I equate that with fresh/ local and home grown.

There are several veg that I either don't grow, can't grow well or don't have the dedicated space for. Some of these veg include: asparagus, cabbage and broccoli. The nearest truck farm in town grows all of these well and inexpensively. So, yesterday I paid about $17 for all of this (sorry for the poor photo quality)

3 bundles of asparagus, 2 heads cabbage and 3 huge bunches of broc.

I wanted to process them quickly to preserve nutrients. So, here's what I did:

Broccoli: I quartered each large bunch and blanched in boiling water for 4 minutes, rinsed, dried and packed 3/4 in freezer bags. I love broc this way, because it is super easy to cook with from the freezer. The last 1/4 I chopped and put in the dehydrator. It didn't take long- one evening. I decided to dehydrate it because we are planning a camping trip at the end of the summer and I don't want to bring a cooler or lots of bulk and we will need some veg for our meals. I also chopped and dehydrated 1 box of button mushrooms. They took the same amount of time in the dehydrator. I bagged them and stuck them in the freezer. Now we can add these to rice, quinoa, noodles, pasta, etc

I know it shouldn't amaze me, but 1 huge head of broc and 1 box

of mushrooms really condenses upon dehydration as seen here.

Asparagus: Ok, I think this is where I may not be as satisfied with my preparation technique for this particular veg. I chopped, blanched for 2-3 min (maybe too long), rinsed, dried and froze. I have a feeling these will be kind of mushy, so I see this technique as being good for a dish where I might puree the veg- like soup, quiche (yes, I puree all my ingredients for quiche occasionally) or maybe a risotto- basically anywhere where the mush factor won't matter.

Cabbage: Probably my favorite way to preserve cabbage is by kraut. I had just read a blog where someone said something about glass not being ideal to use as it could break and I thought that was weird and then....I broke a quart jar smashing the kraut. I salvaged the kraut (we might die from cut throats-you read it here).
Thinly slice, added 1 Tbs of canning salt (because I didn't have my usual sea salt) to each head, shove some into a canning jar, smash with the end of of wooden spoon, add more, smash, etc until full and juices have risen to top. In one jar I added caraway seed, one has dried celery powder and the small one has whole coriander seed. This is 2 head's worth.

Scapes: Up until a couple of years ago I had no idea what scapes were or that anyone ate them. Last year I made pesto of them, put in ice cube trays, froze and tossed into a canning jar in the freezer. This was very good. You can use it in soups, sauces, pizza topping, quiche, etc. This year I decided to try the dilly bean pickling method. I read many people say they don't pickle the flowers, or curly tops, but never said why, so I chose to ignore them and include the flower buds. Perhaps I will learn why when the pickles are ready.
Chop scapes. Prepare a brine of 2 1/2 cups water, 2 1/2 cups white vinegar and 1/4 cup of canning salt. Into each pint jar- 1 tsp dill seed, 1 chili pepper, 1/4 tsp black pepper. Process in hot water bath for 10 min.

 This much pickles from this much scapes. 

Critters

Hubs and kiddo are off to a bee festival in Kentucky, so I'm enjoying the relative peace and solitude this weekend. My only added responsibility is babysitting the Queen Bee herself. Really. I'm babysitting bees.

Hubs ordered a Queen and they sent him 2. This is how they come packaged. I wonder if the mail people would freak if they knew what was in this envelope?

The queen and several workers come in this tiny wooden box, with 1 sugar cube. I've been instructed to give them 3 drops of water each day. This is just wild. I feel sorry for them in this tiny container. I know they will be free soon. 

Elvis may be the King of Rock and Roll, 

but I am the Queen.

-Little Richard

I like that.

June One

Today I harvested the garlic scapes. A brief search online for "best way to use scapes" resulted in lots of suggestions for pesto. So, pesto it is. The scapes ended up being more fibrous than I thought they would be and I had to switch out blending mechanisms a few times. Maybe I need to harvest less stem next time or maybe younger.

 They are pretty neat curly-ques.

Blended with olive oil, a little salt and water. 

Into my pesto trays for freezing.

I haven't grow Rattail Radish since living in my last house over 13 years ago. I'm not a huge fan of radishes, but I remember these being alright. Verdict: they still aren't my favorite food in the world, but maybe pickling would make them better. These are fridge pickles- white vinegar, water, salt, 1 chili, 1 garlic and rattail radishes. Just stuff them in the fridge. No processing. 

This was the first big harvest of peas. When they start to come in I just eat them in the garden, but at this point I'd stuff myself. Here are 2 lbs of snap peas & snow peas. I LOVE snap peas, but if I could have one complaint- this is one food that I can't preserve. I don't like them any way but fresh and then I pig out until I don't want any more and there are usual some left. I need to share. 

The serviceberries (Amelanchier canadensis- native to the NE, E and SE US) are coming to fruition. Kiddo and I harvest 1.5 quarts. I made jam following a recipe online: 4 cups smashed berries, juice from 1/2 lemon, 2 cups sugar (too much) and I didn't have lemon rind so I used orange, which was a nice added flavor. Cook for about 15 minutes, boiling & stirring constantly and then hot water bath for 10 minutes. This is my first time not using pectin and the product isn't completely thickened. These berries are probably a little on the less than fully ripe side, but the darker ones don't hang around long. Robins are big fans. 

 

Mashed & Canned.

                       
The frog pond isn't very froggy this year. We haven't had a lot of rain and we had a very delayed spring. I am worried about the impact on the frog/amphibian population this year.

 New board across the pond-that-isn't so that

I can plant on the other side. 

 Gray Sedge or Burhead- Carex grayii

 Two kinds of Hibiscus- H. lasiocarpus (above) 

and H. laevis (below).

The Water Irises should be happier this year with 

the removal of the pear tree. 

This is how dry the pond is. It has had standing water in it

one time this spring. Silver lining= fewer mosquitoes?

Pickerel weed. Just bought this spring

from Effinger's

Soft Rush- Juncus effusus

Newly planted & raised from seed this winter/spring

Swamp Milkweed- Asclepias incarnata

Thalia- most of it is either delayed or didn't make the

hard winter. It seems what is coming up is around the perimeter.

In bloom:

Meadow Rue- Thalictrum dasycarpum

Garden Heliotrope or Valerian. Valeriana officinalis

Virginia Sweetspire- Itea virginica

 

The "Veg" Garden:
Which is probably more fruit than veg when you think about it. I should start calling it the fruit garden.

 Onions & Chives in bloom. 

Potatoes in the row behind them.

Squashes under the row cover.

 Left row: Dutch Yellow Shallots, Carrots, Basil and more

Row #2: also seen in above photo

Smokey and the Tomato tepee. 

We had about 1/3 inch rain on Monday and the maters

took off. Had to rewind up with twine this morning and bring in more.

Smokey in the asparagus bed.

Still needs to be painted & screwed together.

Tomatoes & Marigolds

Happy June One.